


A Family Man

by The_Uninspired



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Rick is drunk as a skunk, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-18
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 07:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4821302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Uninspired/pseuds/The_Uninspired
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bird Person had known Rick Sanchez for many years. He was crass and unsympathetic, a chronic partier, and at times a violent maniac. But he was also charismatic, an actual genius, and a real family man. He’d always spoken fondly of his daughter back home, but ever since the birth of his young grandson he’d been positively domestic.</p><p>So it confused Bird Person when he was awoken in the middle of the night by the stuttering curses of Rick Sanchez, drunk and alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Family Man

Bird Person had never intentionally set himself apart from his own people; he was proud of his race and quite content with his small place in this universe. He had, however, seen much more of this vast multiverse than many of his peers. He had rested beneath the ever-setting suns of Quagnar, had performed with his band before a crowd of multispecial millions, and had been on the run from any number of intergalactic police organizations at one time or another. He’d slept under the ocean, in the gutter, and among the stars. His people, the Yarak Roo, the Bird People, led rather simple lives in comparison to others he’d seen, and they slept soundly and deeply through the dark nights on Yarug. Bird Person had not slept heavily in many years, and so it was not surprising when he awoke suddenly in the middle of the night. He would have rearranged his nest and gone back to sleep, but a crash rumbled through his house. Then another. 

Another.

Bird Person rose, smoothed his feathers, and retrieved the small lasersonic blaster he kept buried in his nest. As he crept through the dark halls towards the front rooms, the noises became more distinct. A chair being slid across the floor. His cabinet doors being thrown open, then slamming shut. Someone was rummaging through his spirits, clattering all the bottles together. The creature was breathing loudly, and just like a human. As Bird Person came upon the defiled room, he could guess who it was.

“Rick.”

Until several years ago Rick Sanchez, the human, had been the spearhead of their most successful musical endeavor, _The Flesh Curtains_. He was a crass and unsympathetic human, but one Bird Person had come to call _friend_.

The human was huddled in front of his food cabinets, struggling with the cork of his finest Gazorpazorpian green wine. It was not a difficult seal, but his hands were shaking violently, and Bird Person could now hear him, swearing under his breath.

“Rick.” He said again, stepping towards the man. Finally he reacted, leaping up to his feet with a strangled cry.

“ _Je-Je-Jesus_ B- _urp_ -ird Person! Wha-wwwhhat the _hell_?”

The bottle dropped from his fingers and shattered on the floor. The glass shards scattered, and the green liquid pooled around them. Rick didn’t seem to notice. He was still shaking, and his bloodshot eyes were wild, not managing to focus.

“Rick,” Bird Person tried again, not quite so loud, “You are drunk. I have not seen you this drunk since Arturon Seven.” Rick wasn’t listening, too busy wiping at the drool dripping down his chin. His fingers, however, were already wet, and as they pulled away, his chin was red. “Is that blood, Rick? Are you hurt?”

Rick laughed. The sound pierced the thick air, and it did not sound as if he were truly amused. “Fffuck this, BP. Fu-fu-fuck this, and fuck _you_. I shou- _burp_ -ouldn’t have c-c-come here. I-I-I gotta go.” He wiped more blood off on his face, then on his shirt, which was already stained and torn. With a growl and a flourish, he turned and began to stumble towards the low counter, where his portal gun had been thrown.

Bird Person stepped after him, unsure whether he should offer comfort to the man, or let him go. Rick did not like to deal with his own troubled emotions, especially not by talking them through with others, but Bird Person could not deny that he had become quite worried for his friend.

It was not simply that Rick was so drunk he could barely talk, nor that he was covered in blood. Bird Person had seen Rick in such a state many times over their years as friends. It had been, however, several years since Rick had visited him alone. In fact, Bird Person wasn’t sure that he’d seen Rick without a small yellow child by his side since The Flesh Curtain’s final tour of the Q-Uni circuit. The human had left to spend more time with his family when he became a grandfather, and as soon as his young grandson had been old enough to teleport safely, Rick had brought him along on visits.

“Has something happened to your family, Rick?” He asked. “Are Morty and Beth alright?”  
For the smallest, empty moment, Rick froze. His hands stopped shaking, his mouth stopped breathing, and he hesitated.

Then he flew in action. He careened drunkenly to his portal gun, scrabbling blindly, and fled with a snarl to the sitting room.

“Rick-”

“I to-told you to _fff-urp-uck off!_ ”

Bird Person followed behind, unsure of what to say. Rick struggled with his portal settings before finally settling on universal coordinates Bird Person didn’t recognize. The green portal warped into existence, and the human stumbled toward it.

Before entering, and without looking back, Rick reached into his back pocket to remove a plasma pistol. Bird Person jerked forward to stop him, but the human had always been faster to draw than he, and it went off with a deafening blast. The walls shook. 

Rick Sanchez was gone before Bird Person could even call out to him.

The den was very quiet after that. 

Bird Person went back into the kitchen, took out a cloth, and solemnly wiped up the mess on the floor. The shards of glass he saved for building worm traps at the back door, though he could only mourn the expensive green wine. He shut the cabinet doors, replaced his chairs at the table, and walked back out to survey the damage done to the living room. There was a large, charred dent in the far wall, and a cluster of fallen picture frames below it. Not much could be done for the wall now, in the middle of the night, but Bird Person carefully retrieved each of the photos. Most were not heavily damaged, and he lay them one by one on the table. The last, however, had been shattered and charred in the blast. It might have been hard to recognize the image, had Bird Person not chosen the precious image for display himself. It was a picture of Rick, a wide and truly warm smile on his face, cradling a small human in his careful hands.

Bird Person lay that final picture too on the table, and sat down heavily beside it. He stayed there until morning, not sure if he was waiting for his good friend to return, or if he was simply too afraid to go back to sleep. There was little else he could do.

**Author's Note:**

> It's nearly canon now that the Mortiest Morty isn't Rick's first Morty. All Rick's are drunk assholes, but they aren't completely heartless. I figure Rick was a lot closer to his original Morty, maybe even coming back to Beth sometimes over the years. Then everything went to hell (maybe the planet he told Beth he'd destroyed?) and he wandered around for a while. Eventually he got homesick and found a universe where he'd died or just abandoned his family and sets up shop.


End file.
